


Advice From Her Fairy Prince

by Daikon (Daikon1)



Category: Skip Beat!
Genre: Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:40:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25165570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daikon1/pseuds/Daikon
Summary: Ren wasn't going to just let Kyoko run away from him without talking. Even if that meant enlisting the help of Ten.Latesauce oneshot response to chapters 270 and 271 (spoilers for those chapters and the ones leading up to them, obviously).
Relationships: Mogami Kyoko/Tsuruga Ren
Kudos: 16





	Advice From Her Fairy Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Just got an AO3 account; Crossposting from my FF.net account (Daikon).
> 
> To say that I was not satisfied with where chapters 270 and 271 of Skip Beat! left us is to grossly understate my feelings. This is my response, finished June 30th of 2019, to those chapters. I sat on this for a while (obviously), and then I decided today "F*ck it, I'm just gonna post it."  
> Yeah, I know it's no longer relevant. Oh well.
> 
> Who knows, maybe I'll actually get active writing fanfic again *insert shrug emoji here*
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

It was late when Kyoko finally returned to the Daruma-ya; she'd spent the afternoon and evening helping Moko-chan get ready for her film role in America. Her day had been a long, exhausting blur that she was doing her best not to think too hard about. Her focus was almost completely on the entrance to the restaurant, so she didn't see him right away. It was when she was about to step through the door that she froze, recognizing the exact form of the man sitting on a nearby bench, his fingers steepled as he watched her. Then, the gold of his hair caught the light from a streetlamp, and she let out a relieved exhale. "Corn," she said, voice weary.

He stood to his full 190cm height and she pressed her lips together. She wasn't ready to face Corn-as-Tsuruga-san this evening, but… she couldn't ask him to borrow another form; she'd barely thought of anyone or anything else since she'd seen the news that morning. It wasn't a surprise that this was the form he'd adopted.

"Kyoko-chan," he said, and she closed her eyes, pained. "Is everything all right?" he asked, closing the distance between them with two long strides, leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek.

She froze, and her lower lip trembled. She didn't want to cry in front of Corn, but… Tsuruga-san... And then it was too late. She began sobbing, wailing out the pain of the day. As she bawled, she found herself wrapped in Tsuruga… no, Corn's, arms.

_She couldn't do this._

She pulled her way out of his embrace, taking a step back as she wiped her cheeks, sniffling, trying to fight herself back under control.

"Kyoko-chan…" Corn said, clearly distressed.

"I'm fine," she hiccupped.

"What's _wrong_ , Kyoko-chan?" he asked, voice firm but patient.

She closed her eyes again. "I thought maybe she was lying," she whispered.

"What? Who?"

"Mo-Morizumi-san. She wanted the part of Momiji, and I thought maybe she made it up, to mess with me. To ruin my audition."

"Kyoko-chan, I don't…"

She pressed ahead, ignoring his protests. "He was jealous. I thought he was jealous. The other day, about Sho? I know… I thought…" she hiccuped again, rubbing her fist against her tearstained cheek. "I hoped that maybe… maybe it was me." Corn was staring at her, and she turned a little pink. "I knew it wasn't, couldn't be me, but… But…" Her face crumpled again. "I thought he was in love with... But he's not. Tsuruga-san doesn't love anyone but himself."

Corn blinked. "Kyoko-chan… What… what are you talking about? What does _Tsuruga-san_ have to do with this?"

She sniffled. "Tsuruga-san… He said he was in love with a high school girl. Morizumi-san said she was involved with him, but she also tried to throw me off a building after I was cast as Momiji so I thought maybe… maybe she made it up. I _wanted_ her to have made it up. And he… he got so angry when he thought Shotaro was back in my life, and…." She shook her head. "But now he's kissing Kana-chan, and she's not in high school, so he must never have loved that girl to begin with. Whoever she is."

"You… you… you wanted Tsuruga… the girl that… you wanted Tsuruga to be in love with you?"

"...Yes," She admitted before looking up to see Corn's shell-shocked expression. She winced. "You think badly of me," she said.

"Never," he breathed, though the furrow between his blonde brows didn't lessen. "When did... what makes you think he's in love with a high school girl?"

Now she turned quite pink. "He told me," she explained. "He didn't know it was me! I was in disguise, you know. I don't see what reason he had to lie to Bo, though. I thought we were friends."

There was a long pause before he cleared his throat. "Mog-Kyoko-chan. Have you… have you thought that maybe he wasn't lying? Maybe there's just… some kind of misunderstanding? Have you spoken to him about any of this?"

She shook her head. "Oh, I couldn't!" she cried. "If I did… If I tried to ask him… Oh, Corn, if I asked him about Kana-chan, he would know about my feelings, and then he wouldn't even want to be my senpai anymore."

"Your… feelings," he repeated, slowly, and she nodded, her face a mask of misery.

"I'm sorry," she said, dragging the toe of her shoe along the ground. "That's why it's very difficult for me to be affectionate with you today. You look so much like Tsuruga-san and I…" She took another step back and bowed low. "I hope that you can forgive me! Another day, you will have to come and visit when I haven't been thinking of him all day. You can borrow another form then!"

* * *

When he'd convinced Ten to transform him back into Kuon that evening, it had only been because he'd assumed Kyoko was too upset to speak with him directly. After all, he'd clearly gone too far in his jealousy over Sho, and it had obviously hurt her. He'd intended to use this as an excuse to see her, to gently suggest that maybe Tsuruga Ren was just an idiot who needed a chance to apologize, but he hadn't been prepared for _this._

Mogami Kyoko had spent the whole day thinking about Tsuruga Ren.

Mogami Kyoko, the Love Me Section's #1 Member, had feelings for Tsuruga Ren.

Worse, Mogami Kyoko believed that Tsuruga Ren was a playboy who only cared about himself, and that he would discard her if he ever learned of those feelings.

_He'd never realized he was hurting her. He'd never realized she actually noticed anything about his personal life at all._

But Mogami Kyoko was Bo, and he had told Bo about his feelings for a certain high school girl. And Kyoko had internalized this. He felt a spike of anger. And Morizumi-san had lied to her, manipulated her, tried-

"Morizumi-san tried to _throw you off a building_?"

Kyoko held up her hands in appeasement. "I'm okay!" she said. "I can't fly, like you, but Yashiro-san rescued me, along with Erika-sama."

 _And Yashiro-san had known?_ He let out his breath in as close to a measured exhale as he could manage. He would be having a long talk with his manager later. _How could he not have told him about the danger Kyoko-chan had been put in while Ren had been gone?_

"Why would you ever believe _anything_ someone like that said to you?"

Kyoko pinked again. "Tsuruga-san gave her a pinky ring," she explained, and he felt another flash of insight mixed with anger. _The dandelion._

"Kyoko-chan," he said, struggling to keep his voice steady. "I know you do not like me to poke around in your head, but I've inadvertently seen flashes of Tsuruga-san." Her flush deepened, and, with a sense of wonder, he realized that she had been ruminating on him. She really _did_ ruminate on him. Even as far back as Guam, she had been ruminating on him.

It was a heady feeling.

"Tsuruga-san doesn't seem like the type to buy a girl like that a ring. And he doesn't seem like the type who would say he liked a high school girl but then go around and kiss an older woman. Maybe you should wait and see what happens. Even if… even if you can't talk to him about it, I'm sure there's more to the story than what you think."

She shook her head frantically, and Corn's frown deepened.

"Kyoko-chan… Tsuruga-san is your esteemed senpai. And you… you have feelings for him. But you don't trust him?"

An aura of gloom overtook Kyoko again. "...I told you that there's a reason I can't see Corn's true form anymore," she said.

* * *

Kyoko looked up at her Fairy Prince with sad eyes. She'd told him in Guam that she had broken, and that she could even hate people now, but he clearly hadn't understood what that meant.

Corn's lips thinned slightly as he looked at her; his eyes were also distressed. "Kyoko-chan… do you trust anyone anymore?"

"Oh yes!" she cried. "I trust Moko-chan. And I trust The Boss and Okami-san." She began counting on her fingers as she rattled off names. "And Yashiro-san and Maria-chan and Amamiya-chan… and Corn! Of course I trust Corn."

"But not Tsuruga-san."

She wilted slightly under his gaze. "...I respect Tsuruga-san," she said, carefully.

"And you care for him?" he prompted.

Her eyes were trained on the concrete between them. "...I don't want to be the kind of person who can't smile and wish him happiness with someone else," she said. "But I can't… I can't face him yet. I need time to steel my heart."

Corn reached out, tousling Kyoko's hair before running his fingers down her cheek, a bemused expression on his face. "You're still the Kyoko-chan I remember," he said gently, and she looked up at him suddenly, eyes wide. "But you're still not considering… what if Tsuruga-san isn't with anyone else? What if you're right, and Morizumi-san made it all up? What if Tsuruga-san only kissed Kana-chan for a promotional stunt, not because he likes her? You said… you said that you thought Tsuruga-san was jealous about Sho. What if you were right? After all, you are a high school girl..."

Her face had flushed bright red as he spoke, and she held up both hands in protest before he'd even finished his sentence. "No, no, no, no," she said, shaking her head furiously. "No, no, someone like Tsuruga-san, he wouldn't think about someone like _me_ like that. I'm just a novice, his kouhai. He was probably only upset about Sho because he didn't want to see me get hurt again. I'm just reading too much into it. I'm sure it's nothing."

* * *

His hand still cupped her cheek, and he warred with himself - he knew it wasn't fair, he knew it would hurt her, but he wanted to kiss her. _God, he wanted to kiss her._

Stroking his thumb along her cheekbone, he spoke quietly. "You are more than that. Tsuruga-san is lucky that someone like you would ever feel that way about someone like him." Pink again bloomed under his fingers, which did nothing to mitigate his desire to kiss her. "You don't have to confess," he said, gently, "But I think you owe it to yourself to wait and see if this thing with Kana-chan is real, before... before you write off Tsuruga-san as nothing but a playboy."

She pressed her lips together. "But if he wasn't… a natural playboy... if it really _was_ me… Why wouldn't he say something?"

He couldn't suppress the bark of laughter at her confusion. "Because you had sworn off love. Because you treat him exactly as you treat everyone else. Because he didn't want to cause you more pain by speaking of feelings that he thought you couldn't return. Because someone like him isn't worthy of love… I'm assuming," he semi-trailed-off, realizing he'd perhaps been a bit too obvious. However, Kyoko-chan had merely furrowed her brow, clearly giving a lot of thought to his laundry list of reasons that he hadn't done more than hint about his own feelings.

"Corn, you can… can you see into Tsuruga-san's head too?" she asked, and he froze. It was a heavily loaded question.

"Some," he settled on. "Borrowing his voice and form makes it so I can't help but see… certain things."

"So you know who he's in love with, if he even is."

"He is," he said, face gentle. "He is in love with her. I can see that, very clearly."

"Who is it?"

He shook his head. "Kyoko-chan, that's not my place to answer. You know who you have to ask if you want to know."

She shook her head again, and he nodded slowly. "There's no hurry," he said softly. "Just wait and see if this Kana-chan thing blows over for now. He'll still be your senpai no matter what else happens." And, unable to resist any longer, he bent to press a quick kiss to her forehead. Then, he turned and made his way out into the dark of the street. He'd promised Ten he'd meet her before eleven to change back, and it was already nearly midnight.

* * *

Kyoko watched, dazedly, as Corn disappeared into the night. It was a less impressive exit than the previous time, but she had so much else on her mind that this barely registered.

Corn had all but told her that Tsuruga-san didn't love Kana-chan or Morizumi-san. But he hadn't said that Tsuruga… that _Ren-san_ didn't love _her_.

She almost didn't dare hope.

Almost.

Her hands shook slightly as she pulled her mobile phone out of her purse, flipped it open, and dialed a now-familiar number.

"This is Tsuruga." He answered after the second ring.

"Hi, this is Mogami," she said, voice slightly shy, and she heard his smile is his reply.

"Good evening, Mogami-san. Or is it good night? You're calling a bit late…"

She flushed. "I'm so sorry, Tsuruga-san! I, uh, I was just returning your call. From the other night."

"Oh, yes. I was calling to apologize for my behavior in the car. I was worried about you getting hurt again, but I was over the line. Can you forgive me?"

She nodded into the phone. "Yes, of course! You only said such things to protect me! But in truth, Tsuruga-san, I don't… I wouldn't… It isn't like that, with Sho and me. I don't hate him anymore, but I will never love him again."

"I know, Mogami-san." There was a little pause before he decided to take Yashiro-san's advice. "It's not like that between Kana-chan and me, either. It was just a publicity stunt that she pulled me into."

Her heartbeat increased in her ears. "It's… Tsuruga-san, it isn't any of my business what goes on between you and Kana-chan."

"Maybe not." Again, she could hear the smile in his voice. "But I wanted you to know."

"Oh… okay."

"Was there anything else you wanted to talk about tonight?"

She flushed again. "Um. No, not really. Good night, Tsuruga-san. I'm sorry to have bothered you so late."

"It's no bother at all. Sweet dreams, Mogami-san."

She hung up the phone somehow more flustered than she'd been before she called.

 _I wanted you to know_.

Her face burned as she entered the Daruma-ya and made her way up to bed.

* * *

Several blocks away, a golden-haired man hung up his phone, briefly resting his right hand on the timepiece on his left wrist before he climbed into his car.

He had some thinking to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't explain why, but for some reason I crack up every single time I re-read the line "Morizumi-san tried to _throw you off a building_?" (Clearly I have a weird sense of humor)
> 
> If you liked it, I'd love for you to drop me a review and let me know!


End file.
